


The Quiet Moments

by nanaprincess91



Series: Island Bonds [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Kairi (Kingdom Hearts) Appreciation, Minor Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 14:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19871407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanaprincess91/pseuds/nanaprincess91
Summary: ONESHOT- Kairi and her parents have a quiet night at home after her return to the islands. Set Post-KH2.





	The Quiet Moments

**Author's Note:**

> Kairi is one of my favorite characters in Kingdom Hearts and I love getting to explore her in writing.  
> I'm also loving getting to write how the Destiny Trio would be at home, with their parents, and those they left behind. Eventually, this will be part of a collection looking at those instances.  
> A few notes: In these stories, I gave the Destiny Trio the last name of their Japanese VA's. Kairi's mother is the mayor of the town and her father the head of the marketplace. Let me know what you think!

“Dad! Where’s my bag?”

Kairi stuck out her tongue in concentration as she reached a hand under her bed, grabbing at nothing but dust bunnies and what felt like-  _ ew-  _ a melted toffee. How did that even get in there? She brought out her hand out and wiped the sticky residue on her shorts. 

“Dad?” She called out again.

Her door opened and a dark-skinned man with long curly hair, pulled back in a low ponytail and a beard walked in. He held a white backpack, newly cleaned in one hand and a few charms in the other.

Kairi grinned and raced over, taking the bag from his hand.

“It’s here,” her father said, shaking his head. He rolled his shoulder out, watching the girl scramble around the room, balling up clothes into the backpack, a hairbrush. “What’s this all about?”

_ I should bring cards. Selphie always has a couple missing.  _

“Hm?” Kairi asked, walking to her bookshelf and sifting through the knick-knacks until she found a stack of playing cards towards the back.

“Where are you headed to all in a hurry?”

Kairi smiled. “Oh! Selphie invited me over. She wants to catch me up everything that’s happened since I’ve been gone. You know how she is-”

“No.”

Kairi stopped, spinning around to face him. “What?”

Her father stood in the doorway, arms crossed. “Not tonight.” 

Kairi’s eyebrows furrowed. “But I promised her and she says she’s missed me-”

“She’s not the only one.”

Kairi shook her head. “But you’ve been home all day since I got back.”

Her father stepped forward, setting her charms down on her bedside table, and placing his hands on her shoulders gently. “Are you so ready to leave us again?”

Kairi’s eyes widened. “What? No. Of course not.”

Why would he suggest something like that? 

Her father had a soft look in his eyes, pained. He had been having meetings downstairs the last three days and now that she thought about that, it was strange. Kairi’s father had always met with local merchants and farmers at his office closer to the marketplace’s plaza. It made it easier to visualize the space, to communicate with other buyers, and to see what was coming in fresh that day. Their house, while central to the town, was not as close to the docks, sitting at the end of a small street, isolated, overlooking the rest of Destiny Islands a little bit higher up towards the volcano. It wasn't the best place to organize the market as the head of the merchant’s organization. Yet, there he was. And Kairi’s mother had popped in for lunch since she’d returned as well when she would have usually gone down to eat with her friends who worked near Town Hall. Maybe Kairi had underestimated how much she had been missed.

Kairi reached over and hugged her father.

“Okay,” she said, pulling away. She approached her bedside table, picking up her charms one by one and fastening them to her backpack. There was one she had made with her parents when she was little, one of of a bouquet of flowers, one of their little trio. The last one she reached for was her thalassa charm with Sora’s face on it, newly returned, but her father picked it up first, dangling it off his finger. 

He raised an eyebrow, inspecting it.

“Oddly specific,” he said, turning it over. “You have one of Sora, but not of Riku”

Kairi took it gently from him. “Yes?” she said, encouraging him to continue but he was silent. 

She was about to loop it around one of the backpack’s handles, but she found herself looking at it. A soft smile grew on her face and she slipped the charm into her short’s pocket.

Kairi’s father shook his head. “Well, I’m just glad the three of you are home safe.” He kissed the top of her head.

There was the sound of a door opening downstairs.

“Kaito? Kairi? I’m home.”

“We’re upstairs,” Kaito called out. “But we’re coming down.” 

They headed down the stairs to where Kairi’s mother, black hair worn in a long braid, was digging through a bag of papers. 

“Welcome back, Nanami.” Kairi’s father walked up to her mother and pressed his forehead to hers.

Kairi smiled and did the same. Then, she pushed the papers in her mother’s bag and hung it on a little hook on the wall. 

“I thought we could stay in tonight. Have a family night.”

Her father raised his eyebrow, “You thought?”

Kairi scrunched her nose. “Okay, not  _ I  _ thought, more like  _ dad  _ thought.”

The smile lines around Kairi’s mother’s eyes became more pronounced as she slid the final paper she was holding into the bag on the wall.

“I think that’s a great idea.”

Kairi raised a finger. “But I should call Selphie first and cancel our plans. She’s not going to be happy.”

Kairi’s father chuckled. “You can invite her over another day.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kairi sighed happily as fingers lovingly pulled her long hair behind her, tugging gently. It was nice being back home, the sounds of her mother’s guitar strings filling the living room. She played a local folk song, one about a sailor who had fallen in love with a mainland explorer and their adventures together. She hummed as she played, tapping her fingers on the guitar’s body occasionally for an extra beat. Kairi found herself singing along to the tune. Her mother switched from humming to singing, a soft alto to Kairi’s mezzo, and soon her father’s deep bass had joined their voices. Kairi couldn’t stop the smile that grew on her face.

It was so peaceful, sitting here, being with her family, singing like nothing had changed.

The song ended too soon and Kairi opened her eyes, looking over at her mother.

“You should play "The Barmaid and The Siren" next,” Kairi said with a smile.

“Kairi!” her mother said pretending to be scandalized, but she couldn’t keep the look on for long; she started laughing and her father joined along.

“You don’t like the counting coins one anymore?" her father said.

Kairi nodded, feeling her hair tighten in its knot slightly. “I do. But I can also like bar songs.” She smiled. “I don’t have to choose one.”

Her father chuckled before he let go of her hair. “There you are.” He stood up from the couch where he had been sitting and moved to his chair.

Kairi reached behind her, feeling the new braid. Her fingers brushed against the delicate petals of a flower towards the bottom. “Thank you.” 

Though her hair wasn’t as long as her parents, she did enjoy the tradition of sitting together and braiding their hair. Come to think of it, maybe she should offer to braid Riku’s hair one of these days. Spirits knew it was long enough to do so already. 

“Anyone want some coconut?”

Kairi raised her hand enthusiastically.

“Two please,” her mother said, starting to strum another song, a quieter one this time.

Kairi watched as her father grabbed the machete from its resting place and grabbed one of the coconuts, getting to work. She had always admired the ability to cut open such a stubborn fruit to get to the sweet center, but it had always seemed so impossible. But now, maybe it wasn’t. She had a keyblade- Destiny’s Embrace, her heart told her. She could fight now and if it could cut through heartless, she could probably learn to be strong enough to cut open a coconut. Not that she’d use such a magnificent weapon of light for such an ordinary purpose, but for once, she didn’t feel like she was waiting for someone to be strong for her. This time, she could be the strong one. 

“What’s wrong?”

Kairi hadn’t realized she had been staring at her hands. She looked up to find an open coconut waiting. Her father's eyebrows were furrowed in concern. How long had he been there? She reached up and took it, flashing her dad a grateful smile.

“Nothing,” Kairi said quickly, taking a long sip from the fruit.

“Kairi,” her mother said in a cautious voice. She shared a look with Kairi’s father. “Maybe it’s time we talked about this.”

Kairi pressed the coconut to her mouth again, trying to mask her voice which had gone up an octave, taking another long sip. “It’s nothing. I thought you wanted some quiet family time.”

Kairi’s father’s voice was gruffer this time. “You were gone for three weeks, Kairi. We were worried sick.”

She bit her lip, setting down the coconut on her lap. “I’m sorry…”

Kairi’s mother scooched over closer to her, gently brushing a stray hair that had come loose from Kairi’s braid behind her ear. 

“You can trust us, you know.” 

She knew she could. Kairi knew her parents were loving people who would do anything for their daughter. As a young couple, they had taken in what they assumed was a shipwrecked child on a night full of falling stars, had raised her as their own, leaving her wishing for nothing else. Kairi may not have been born an Uchida, but she was one of the family. There was no doubt about it.

Kairi flinched as her mother traced the faint scar that ran along Kairi’s cheek from Saix’s blade. Her mother’s face turn to one of pain and worry, a worry she carried silently, clearly waiting for Kairi to speak.

But what could she say?

_ “Mickey said it wouldn’t be a good idea to bring anything up.”  _

That’s what Riku had said. They had to keep their world order, make sure no one found out about other dimensions or worlds or anything. But Kairi remembered that lost year after she regained her heart. Sora and Riku may have heard from their families and loved ones about the anxieties of living in a state of anticipation; they may have sympathized with it. But Kairi, Kairi had lived it. She remembered waiting by the docks and looking out at the water for Riku’s boat to appear, remembered the feeling of confusion when Sora had disappeared from her memories. She was well-acquainted with the gnaw of saudade. She couldn’t put her parents through that again.

_ But it’s my duty.  _

Kairi looked down. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Kairi, sweetie, you have to understand,” her father moved over to sit beside her again. “You just disappeared. How do we know it won’t happen again?”

_ You don’t.  _

Kairi fidgeted between her parents, lifting her coconut to her lips again, but her mother traced the scar again. She couldn’t lie and not just because she was told she was a terrible liar...she wouldn’t lie to her parents.

_ I’m sorry, King Mickey… _

“I…” Kairi looked down before pressing her lips together in determination. Truths. Not full truths, but truths. “I was kidnapped.”

Kairi heard her parents gasp and suddenly there was a barrage of questions:

“Who was it?”

“What happened?”

“Where did they take you?”

“Are you okay?”

Their arms were around her and Kairi struggled to get a breath in.

“I’m okay, I’m okay!” Kairi exclaimed. “Really. I got away.”

They pulled away and looked her over. She could tell they started noticing other small, faint scars on her arms. Organization XIII had never wanted to hurt her greatly, just enough to scare her, just enough to motivate Sora, and the one time someone had attacked too harshly, they had used a cure. Of course, those were details she wouldn’t tell her parents. 

“Do we need to take you to a doctor?” Her mother said quietly.

She could hear the underlying fear, even before she felt how tightly her mother gripped her hand. The guitar lay forgotten on the ground now.

Kairi took her parents’ hands in hers. “No, I’m okay. Nothing happened.”

Her mother glanced at the scars.

“They’re just a few scars, but it was nothing,” Kairi repeated.

“What did they want? A ransom?”

This was getting harder to hide. Kairi couldn’t tell her parents that she had been used as bait for Sora; that wouldn’t go over well and then they’d start asking why he was putting her in danger. At the same time, she could tell her mother was starting to blame herself. Threats against the town hadn’t happened anytime in Kairi’s lifetime or the generation before, but in the past, mayors and towns had been threatened. She didn’t want her mother to think Kairi had been kidnapped as a way to get to her mother. They may never let her leave the island on her own again if that was the case. But she also couldn’t just leave it as an empty kidnapping. Her parents would start to suspect the worst- they were already doing so. 

Organization XIII had been trying to take hearts. They were stealing them from others and they wanted to use Sora to do that so maybe…

“They didn’t want anything from me. They were thieves,” Kairi said carefully. “They just wanted to scare me a bit and to get me to help with the stealing.”

Not a lie. By hurting her, they were helping promote their schemes so it was the truth. Kind of.

“But someone helped me escape…” Kairi looked up. “And then Sora and Riku found me and protected me. They helped save me because uh...they heard about it while coming back to the islands.”

Kairi’s parents relaxed, but then her mother’s face turned stonier. “We need to start looking out for thieves then.”

Kairi put up her hands, interrupting her mother. “No no. They uh...they’re not coming back. I promise.”

Kairi’s father gave her a suspicious look. “How are you sure?”

Kairi shook her head. “I just am...but...I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s not something I’m ready to talk about...is that okay?” 

Kairi’s mother pressed her forehead against Kairi’s and they both exhaled. Kairi could feel her tension leaving. She hated lying to her parents, but she knew they loved her. She knew that all these questions, all this worry, was because they had been afraid of losing her. Her explanation had probably led to more questions and her shutting down the conversation hadn’t helped.

“When you’re ready to talk about it, sweetheart, you tell us, okay?” Her father said.

Kairi nodded. She hoped Riku and Sora wouldn’t blame her for her explanation and would play along. She’d have to let them know since knowing her parents and their clear recognition that Kairi was still hiding things about the incident, they’d ask to speak to the boys. There was a small stone of guilt sitting in her stomach: now she was asking others to lie for her?

Kairi held back a sigh of frustration.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I missed you, you know?” Kairi said as her father handed her another bead.

“I’d hope so,” Kairi’s mother said, serving herself another bowl of curry and rice before settling down on the crook of the couch again.

Kairi threaded the wooden bead through the small opening of a false cerith shell. Those would be the legs. She took a thinner needle and placed it in her candle’s fire, waiting until its point glowed red before gently weedling at another end of the shell. She waited until the needle poked through the hard shell before she turned back to her parents.

“I did.”

“I always thought you wanted to explore other islands.” Kairi’s father raised his eyebrow. “Or was I wrong?”

Kairi rolled a few different beads, too light, too striped- ah, just right. She grabbed another one from the box to continue her work. She tilted her head side to side. 

“Not really...Kind of. I do want to see other places.”

“You want to find home?” Kairi’s mother asked.

_ Home. Does she mean before Destiny Islands? I’ve been there, although I can’t tell them that either.  _

But that wasn’t home. Radiant Garden had been a place she had lived once, a previous her, one that existed somewhere deep in her memory and past. She didn’t know if that girl existed anymore.

“Mom,” Kairi set down her needle. “This is home.”

“Yes, but-”

“I know what you mean,” Kairi quickly amended. “And...I am curious.” She bit her lip. Who were her birth parents? Her family? What was her life before? “I do want to know, but it’d never be to replace you all.” She looked up again, determined. “Never.”

Kairi’s mother relaxed, but her father still looked unsure. 

“Daichi said Riku talked about exploring other places before the storm. He said that you and the boys had made a pact to go off sailing.”

That all seemed like so long ago.

“We did,” Kairi admitted. “And...one day, I’d like to.” She smiled. “They’re my friends and you did a trip with your friends after you finished school.”

“Kairi-”

She looked back. “But not today.” She smiled. “I want to enjoy time on the islands together. I just got back and it all is…” she dipped her finger in her mom’s curry-

“Kairi!”

She giggled and gave an apologetic smile, quickly licking the curry and sitting back down. “It’s just nice. All of that is over.”

Hopefully. 

Kairi’s father nodded before he took one of the shells. “So what shall we make?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We need to register you for classes again,” Kairi’s mother said. She had her guitar in hand again, strumming a few simple chords. 

“I know,” Kairi said. She had left the charm on the table, half-made. It would take more materials, but it sat happily beside the palm tree one her father had made.

She then smiled mischievously, “But also,  _ do  _ we?”

Kairi’s mother gave her a deadpan look over the guitar and Kairi let out a loud laugh, startling her father who had fallen asleep awake.

“Wha-happened?” he said, eyes half closed.

“Nothing,” Kairi nudged her dad with her foot. “Go back to sleep.”

“Your daughter wants to skip classes.”

Kairi smiled. “Not skip. I like classes. But it’d be nice to rest as well.”

“Resting...is good…” her father said, dozing off again.

Kairi’s mother laughed quietly. “It would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

The music she created blended with the soft chirp of crickets outside. They had let the candles dim down, choosing not to keep only the kitchen light on so the lights of fireflies flickering were visible through the window. It was quiet and peaceful. Kairi played with the end of her braid again, breathing quietly. Kairi’s mother looked over at her husband, fast asleep snoring loudly now and shared a look with Kairi before both of them held back quiet laughter. 

“How about I take tomorrow off and the three of us go eat at the top of Himono? We can visit the temple up there.”

Kairi looked at the painting on the wall of the volcano she knew their house sat on. It had been a while since she had gone up there with her family. And a picnic would be nice.

“That sounds wonderful, mom.” She smiled, “But only if you promise to bring mangos with chili.”

Her mother laughed, reaching over to squeeze Kairi’s hand.

“You’ve got a deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I can't wait to post another.


End file.
